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I admit last week’s episode wasn’t among my favourites from the series, but it seems they finally picked up the pace a little and made one of the best episodes so far. Death on a Pale Horse is a little different from the rest of the episodes, primarily because some things that were merely hinted at in the previous episodes have come to a head such as the Pope’s lack of support from his cardinals, Cesare’s inability to let go, Della Rovere’s obsessive nature and Giovanni Sforza’s lack of honour. During the show we learn that the french king, who we’ve met in the previous episode has gathered up the army and is now invading the various strongholds of modern day Italy.The desperation is practically tangible from Cesare and to a certain extent Rodrigo in light of the impending war (see below my reasoning as to why I didn’t buy his act). The king is a little blood thirsty and his actions are contemptible to say the least. He doesn’t care about white flags or peace offerings as he tramples over bodies. This was one of the more realistic aspects of the episode, the lack of consideration for human life. [...]

The Borgias is in my opinion one of the best period dramas that I have seen in later years, for the past weeks it only got raving reviews from me,  but the last episode didn’t really convince me. We learn a little more about Juan who was at best a secondary character throughout the series so far, but his development is rather poorly handled. He is made even less likable – and that’s a feat – considering just how poorly his character was doing up until now. David Oakes is good at playing Juan – ignoring the mullet, but his character is just more and more corrupt and his actor seems unable to draw any sympathy for Juan from me. Considering this is a series about the Borgias where murder is at every corner, plots are weaved to destroy enemies and former friends alike, it is saying something about him. Perhaps I am too picky in my dislike for Juan based on the fact that so far he demonstrated no shred of intelligence, but I had expected better from the writers. He is adamant that he deserves to marry a princess or a queen, rather than a bastard – even [...]

The fourth episode came and went and The Borgias seems to be only getting better and better. This week’s episode focused on the marriage of Lucrezia Borgia(Holliday Grainger), the only daughter of Pope Alexander VII (Jeremy Irons) with the courtesan Vanozza(Joanne Whalley). I had to mention the mother because even though there was little focus on her character so far, this time she had a lot to say. The Pope has decided to give his daughter’s hand in marriage to Giovanni Sforza(Ronan Vibert) due to his political position that could come in handy. The episode shows a lot of the political power plays of the time. “Selling” your daughter to the highest bidder was not uncommon. The Pope is no stranger to this practice as we have seen, he embraces the opportunity to fortify his position as Pope of Rome and ruler of the catholic world. It’s a little disturbing to see the wedding and think that Lucrezia was around fourteen when she married Sforza who was obviously much older than her. I think the show did a great job at portraying the customs of the time, however unpleasant they were. Let’s keep the story short – Vannozza is banned [...]

I have to admit I had very high hopes for the third episode of this historical drama and I am happy to say most of them have been met. We got to see more character development this episode, more drama, more plots and the same fine acting as before. Last week I complained about the lack of character development for Lucrezia. She seemed like the odd one out, shy and pleasant, waiting for the world to be a bright, beautiful place, completely different from what I know about the true Lucrezia, but with Holliday Grainger’s performance it became clear to me that she really might have been just that, an innocent girl that was molded into the villain she later became. We see how her views of the world are slowly shaped by her brother’s influence, by her father’s wishes, by a misstreses advices and all of that. This episode was more about her than anyone else. She is slowly turning from the innocent little girl into a genre savvy person who I can see in the future holding a poisoned chalice or a knife to someone’s throat. Francois Arnaud continues to impress me as Cesare Borgia, to my chagrin [...]